Well I'll be hornswaggled: Rodeo tops the TV list
While it's pretty much a given that football and baseball dominate the summer sports ratings in Canada in non-Olympic years, there's a sport that tends to get overlooked: rodeo.
Apparently all that calf-roping and steer wrangling makes for some compelling television. The most-watched sports event over last weekend was the Calgary Stampede, which is amazing considering that there were likely few PETA members in that audience.
This is no ratings blip, by the way. CBC's average of 250,000 viewers for each Stampede showing is up only 3 per cent over last year.
In other ratings observations, the Blue Jays audiences continue to slip slide away as the team pretty much takes the same route. Expect them to drop even further, especially if Roy Halladay is sent packing.
The Toronto Indy didn't fare badly despite a year's absence.
TSN attracted 174,000 viewers to the race, which was also broadcast on ABC. Since we don't know how many people watched on the American channel, it's impossible to know how many Canadians watched the demolition derby at the Ex. But it's safe to assume there were more than 300,000.
That pales in comparison to the race's glory days, when it routinely hit 500,000 -- but it's a start.
That said, here are the top-rated weekend sports events in English Canada. As always, they were compiled by BBM Nielsen Media Research:
Chris you City Slicker! Come West young man & we'll show ya all 'bout it!
R
BLOGGER'S REPLY: Nothing slick about me, Randy. I've still got Thunder Bay (Westfort) dust on my shoes. That reminds me: Time to get new shows.
Chris Z
Posted by: Piker in GP | 07/15/2009 at 11:23 AM